Welcome to the Monterey Peninsula Voices!
We are so excited to have you join our choir. There are some things that we wanted to share because sometimes we forget to give enough background to our new members, particularly when they just sign up.
Communications
MPV uses a variety of methods to share information with our singers. The first is our website and email. When you join for the first time, you will get an email addressed to the email address that you used to register. This will provide your login and password for the mpvoices.org website. Here you will find a bunch of tools and information, but most importantly, you will be able to access our members list and be able to use that to email other members of the choir. We will use the website to send out group emails and keep everyone in the loop. This year, we will be putting our music and tracks on the website for easy access.
This year we will be using Vimeo to conduct our rehearsals (livestream) and the recordings of our reherarsals and sectionals.
STEP 1: Logging in to the mpvoices.org as a member.
To login, go to: mpvoices.org and you will see a members menu on the top right below the red stripe. Click on members and you will see a LOGIN box in the bottom left side. Put in your login and password, and you will be on the Members Page.
STEP 2: VIEWING Online Rehearsals (live streaming)
Once you are on the members home page, you will see 2 screens.
The TOP screen is the live stream window. Sean will automatically come alive with the live stream when he turns on the camera and start broadcasting. You don't have to do anything to see the live stream.
The chatbox is next to the live stream window. In order to be able to use the chatbox, you will have to create a free Vimeo account. Once you do, then you will be able to use the chat function. The chat window will walk you through that process. Note that you are perfectly fine watching the live stream without the chat box if you don’t want to chat.
Now if for some reason the live stream isn't working for you, then you can use a link to go directly to Vimeo to see the live stream as well. It is the same link for every live stream. That link is: https://vimeo.com/event/1717475/ba2baeb22a
Again, this link will take you directly to the live stream on the Vimeo page. Use this only if the member's page of the website isn't working for you.
STEP 3: VIEWING recorded rehearsals or sectionals
The BOTTOM of the 2 screens on the member's page of the MPV website is where we will store sectional rehearsals and the recordings of previous rehearsals. However, to access this screen and see the videos, you will have to enter a password each time.
In order to keep these videos private for MPV members only, we had to password protect them. The password is: MPVoices You will have to use this password every time you access these videos.
Once you put in the password and press return, the screen will show a playlist that you click on and it drops down to show you which videos are available. Click on the one you want to see, and you’re all set.
Facebook MPV Members group
If you use Facebook, just friend Emily Barnthouse or Chris Hasegawa and we will link you to the MPV Members page where we share memes and notes, but that is more informal and aimed more at fun and sharing. Using Facebook and the MPV Members page is completely voluntary andno official messages will be shared there that are not shared through emails.
If you gave us your cell phone number, we will also use the ‘Remind’ text service for emergency or critical news that is important for members to see immediately. Let's say that we need to cancel rehearsal at the last minute because electricity has gone out in Monterey or there's a wildfire or flood. We hope not to use this too much.
Finally, sheet music,tracks, demos and more(described below) are made available through Dropbox. Once you are registered and paid, you will get a link that allows you to download what is in the Dropbox. Keep the link because if there are any changes or additions, that link will keep updating to take you to the most current materials. You should not need to print all of the sheet music that you download as you will see below.
Sections
Everyone in the choir is assigned a section that corresponds to the part that you will sing. MPV has Sopranos 1 & 2, Altos 1 & 2, Tenors 1 & 2, and Baritones (aka Bass 1) and Basses (or Bass 2). When you first join the choir, our conductor will invite new members to the piano at the end of rehearsal and in a non-threatening and group process, he will lead you through the singing of some scales, get to know you a bit, and let you know the section that you are best suited. This is not an audition - you are in the choir - it's just a way to make sure you are singing in the section where you will be most comfortable. If you ever want to change sections or make any musical changes, go talk to Sean.
Sheet music
MPV makes every attempt to be as scrupulous as possible with the purchase and use of sheet music. This is critical because we want to make sure that the composers and arrangers are compensated for their work, and we don't want to break any copyright laws. Each singer will receive a copy of the sheet music for the songs that we are performing in a season. The only exception is if we are repeating a song from a previous season and still have that music. PDFs are provided so that those of us that use electronic pads for our music can download copies of the music to their pads as is allowable under the law. It should not be necessary for members to print out the PDFs.
Rehearsal, Demo, and Background Tracks
MPV provides access to both rehearsal, demo, and background tracks as learning aids for our members and these should not be used or shared for any other purpose. Rehearsal tracks have been created to so that each singer can hear what their part sounds like. The tracks have been created to demonstrate the notes that the singer will sing, and are not intended to always demonstrate proper dynamics, rhythm, and pronunciation. Those will be covered in the rehearsals, and it is important that singers not rely on the rehearsal tracks too much except to learn notes. Demo tracks are provided to help members understand how another choir has sung the piece. Again, there may not be a direct correlation between how that choir sang the song and how MPV will perform it. However, some singers find it helpful to hear "the forest" before working on their own "trees", and the demo tracks help in that way. Background tracks are provided so that a singer can hear what our pianist or other background musicians are performing in the background. Again, these are not meant to be definitive, but rather to give a sense of what will happen so that a member can get clues to timing, and in some cases, pitch from the background musicians. Sometimes, we do perform using the background tracks, and that information will be shared as we rehearse.
We hope this has provided you with adequate information as you embark on your singing journey with MPV. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Chris Hasegawa (chrish@mpvoices.org).
